


Unexplained

by SoftyDeluxe



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 14:13:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11648217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftyDeluxe/pseuds/SoftyDeluxe
Summary: Ever since the farmer arrived, everyday miracles have started to happen.





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [this post](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/311400) by pinkdiamondprince on tumplr. 



> in which the farmer is a demigod with immense power, but really just wants to use it for a simple life out in the countryside.  
> this was entirely based on and inspired by a post made by pinkdiamondprince on tumblr! the whole premise of this fic was all their idea, i just saw it and thought it was interesting, so i decide to write about it a little. i actually based my in-game farmer around this idea, so that's who i'm using in this fic!  
> check out their post here: https://pinkdiamondprince.tumblr.com/post/155741553968/honestly-ive-played-a-lot-of-harvest-moon-and

The news spread around only days before their arrival. The old man’s farm had sat abandoned and overgrown for years, and many residents of Pelican Town considered it a waste of space. The Mayor, however, insisted otherwise for this exact reason. In only a matter of days, a new farmer would come to claim the land - the old man’s grandchild.

Their father had called a couple weeks before they were supposed to come into town. He spoke to the mayor about how they had opened their grandfather’s letter, and would be arriving soon to spend some time out in the old farm house to get some fresh air. The mayor offered to fix it up beforehand, make it a bit less cramped, but the man declined. “No, they’ll be fine. Trust me.”

The mayor was slightly taken aback by their appearance. Their skin was pale, but in an almost unnatural way. He had heard of city folk not getting much sun, but this was just unhealthy. Their eyes were hidden by a thick pair of sunglasses, causing the mayor to think for one ridiculous second that they were blind. Their hair was dyed a faded blue, though their roots gave their naturally black locks away. It reminded the mayor of Emily.

Robin stood beside the mayor with an enthusiastic smile on her face, trying to give off a welcoming vibe to the pale stranger. The two introduced themselves, and the newcomer nodded, giving a softer smile, just barely painted onto their lips.  
“What’s your name? Your father didn’t mention it, if I recall correctly-”

“Farmer.”

A pause.

The mayor sputtered. “E-excuse me?”

“Farmer is fine.” They’re voice was barely a whisper as they tangled their fingers together anxiously. They must be shy.

Robin smiled at them. “Sure thing! No need to be nervous. I’m sure you’ll get along fine here, Farmer.”

It was a simple and accurate title, though neither could imagine how accurate it would end up being. After all, the farmer was only supposed to stay in town a couple months to get their head cleared. What could they possibly accomplish in such a short amount of time?


	2. Trees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which robin gets spooked  
> (sorry these chapters are so short, i'm not very good at writing lengthy stuff yet, I am working on it though!)

A lot.

As it turned out, the farmer could accomplish borderline inhuman amounts of work in just a few passing weeks, and they showed no signs of stopping.

After the first day had passed, Robin felt it necessary to try to make the farmer feel a little more comfortable after yesterday’s introduction. They looked so nervous, Robin figured she could offer them a tour of Pelican Town, or introduce them to some of her friends. It’s hard to feel nervous in a new place when you have friends with you. Maybe the farmer just needed to make some.

She was on her way to Junebug Farm - re-named after the arrival of the new owner, as is tradition - when she saw it.

Robin was at the entrance to Junebug Farm, gazing out upon almost entirely cleared land, which had been overgrown and untamed just the day before.

All the weeds, tangled grass, random stones, and fallen branches from yesterday had been removed from sight. Robin looked around in awe at the sight of the uncovered soil. She couldn’t wrap her mind around it - it had been a dense forest literal hours ago! What could have possibly-

The sound of wood snapping followed by a startling thud shook Robin from her thoughts. It sounded like it was coming from the back of the house. After catching her breath, she carefully crept over to the side of the house and peeked around the corner, fear widening her eyes.

Before her stood the farmer with their back to her, a freshly chopped tree stump lying at their feet, and an axe in their hand.

“F-Farmer!?” Robin gasped and stepped out from her hiding spot and walked towards the new fallen tree. The farmer turned and looked at her, surprised. “What- what have you been doing?”

The farmer suddenly took on a sheepish humor, holding the axe behind their back as if they had done something wrong. They used a hand to dig around in the front pocket of their overalls and pulled out a small packet of parsnip seeds. They were trying to clear the land for the crop.

Robin was incredulous. The farmer must have been up all night working. There was just no physically possible way that they had gotten all this done in the past few hours when the sun had barely peeked past the horizon. They must have downed at least ten trees, and it was only seven A.M.

“You did all of this,” Robin gestured to the almost empty land surrounding them, “by yourself?”

A nod as they tucked the packet of seeds back into their pocket.

“How?"

A shrug. They were awfully quiet, Robin noticed.

Robin still had the same frustratedly confused look on her face. Seeing this, the farmer quietly offered an explanation in the form of pulling the axe out from behind their back and pointing to it.

A beat passed between them.

Robin suddenly laughed, putting a hand on her forehead. It was just such an absurd thing, she found humor in it. The farmer smiled at her, the sheepish disposition now gone.

“I’m sorry, Farmer, I- I just-” she had to catch her breath for a moment, “I just don’t understand, I guess. I’m glad you’re adjusting well, though. If you have any questions about anything, let me know, alright? My shop is just north of here.”

The farmer gave a curt nod, which must have been their primary method of communication, and watched Robin turn and walk back towards the entrance before getting back to their work.

As she passed the bus stop on her way back to Pelican Town, her calm disposition gave no hint of the mental war she was waging between rational logic and what he had just seen with her own eyes. The farmer could not have done all that by themselves. Plain and simple. She would ask around town to see if anyone had gone to Junebug Farm in the past few hours.

A flicker of fear grew in her when she found that the majority of the town hadn’t even seen the new farmer yet, let alone set foot on the farm.


	3. Artifacts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which gunther questions the reliability of the laws of physics  
> (anyone else arrange their museum findings in a certain way? i arrange mine by color!)

Some time had passed since the arrival of the farmer, and everyone in town had grown accustomed to their quiet and shy nature. They were odd, but they never did anything to upset anyone, despite what George might sometimes say.

The kids especially seemed to take to the farmer, often running around town telling everyone how the farmer completed some impossible challenge. Jaz once said that the farmer broke a boulder twice the size of them to pieces with just a few swings of their pickaxe. Vincent excitedly recounted how he saw them come out of the mines once, their backpack full of gold and gems that would’ve taken Marlon months to find.

All who hear these stories brushed them off as exaggerations that typically come with child-like excitement. Robin, however, always seemed to react upon hearing them - her smile would falter slightly, her eyes would widen - almost as if she believed the children.

One day, just after the museum had opened for the day, Gunther watched the farmer come in, carrying a backpack that was almost bursting at the seams.

They approached the counter and dropped the bag upon it with a loud thud. Gunther had accepted donations from them before. It was usually some simple artifact they had dug up around their farm, but with a bag like that, Gunther expected something a little different this time.

“Morning, Farmer. What do you have for me today?” Gunther smiled at them as they opened the bag, tilting it so he could peer inside.

It was indescribable. There was a disproportionate amount of gems in comparison to the bag’s size. Glittering jewels and stones crowded the bag that was somehow much, much bigger on the inside than its average outward appearance let on.

Gunther’s mouth had been hanging open for a solid minute, brow furrowed as he tried to understand what he was seeing. Before he had a chance to comprehend it, the farmer closed the bag back up again with a smile, and went to place their new findings on the display areas.

He watched them carefully place each mineral and artifact in the display room. There must have been twenty or so. They had always been rather particular about the order in which they were organized, and the whole ordeal of organizing and reorganizing took maybe ten minutes before they were out the door to go on with the rest of their day.

Gunther waited until the end of the day to inspect them, which he usually did anyways. He walked down the aisles, taking each object in his hands, turning it over in his hands before placing it back in the same position he had found it in, lest the farmer come in with their next donations and spend an hour re-adjusting everything.

The disbelief he felt brought him to carefully examine every mineral, but even with his eye, he still found himself in doubt. How could the farmer have unearthed all of these? He never thought the museum’s collection would be this close to completion in his lifetime, especially seeing as how the only ones who were going into the mines these days had little interest in minerals, only fighting monsters.

He had to be sure. He would wait until tomorrow and bring some of them to Clint. He would be able to get a second opinion on confirming their authenticity. Gunther tried to assure himself that there was an explanation for all this. He racked his mind as he held up a glittering red gem up to the light. The farmer had brought in multiple donations in the past, sure, and that alone was surprising enough as the museum hadn’t had any legitimate donations in a while, but this was so much. They must have been waiting to bring all of this in to save trips from Junebug Farm to the museum.

The next morning, Gunther walked up to Clint’s desk with his arms full of just a few of the donations that Farmer had brought in the day before. He inspected each with care.

According to Clint, they were all genuine.


	4. Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which it's clint's birthday.  
> (okay this is probably going to be the last chapter for a while just because i kind of cranked all these out in rapid succession. there will be more to come!)

Throughout the day, Clint had received many good wishes and small gifts from the people of Pelican Town. They all regarded him with as much kindness as he had showed them since he had lived here. It was a particularly cold day out, but he didn’t mind. It was his birthday, and the weather wasn’t going to stop him from celebrating it.

Overall, the day passed fairly normally. He was sure he had spoken to almost every citizen in town. Besides festivals, birthdays were one thing that really brought the people of Pelican Town together. He was just about to close up for the day when the farmer came in, a half-grin present on their pale face.

He had always found their presence calming. They never talked much, and he appreciated the moments of calm silence that passed between the two of them whenever the farmer had a few new geodes to crack open. As odd as the other people in town might say they are, Farmer was a good friend.

Farmer came in, snow stuck to their hair and clothes, melting as soon as they entered the heat near the furnace. Clint smiled kindly at them. He had put out a delivery order in town square for some copper, so when the farmer came around the counter to Clint instead of going up to the counter like they usually did, he expected them to hand them copper.

Instead, they reached into their bag and pulled out a bar of pure Iridium.

Clint stood for maybe a solid minute before taking the iridescent bar into his gloved hands, holding it as if it were porcelain. He was sure he was dreaming.

He stared down at it in silence.

“Happy birthday.”

A very small voice came from in front of him. He looked up and saw the farmer, tangling their fingers into each other, sunglasses aimed down at the floor. It didn’t occur to him how strange it was that they were wearing them indoors.

Clint’s knees felt week as he looked back down at the ingot in his hands, trying to formulate the proper response in his head. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a real Iridium bar, let alone owning one. How- why would the farmer give this to him? Don’t they realize how expensive it is? How rare it is?

In his grateful daze, he didn’t notice that the farmer had already started towards the door. He managed to work out of his thoughts before they reached it, though. “Thank you.”

It came out more like a question than a genuine thanks, but the farmer turned and smiled back at them anyway. 

After they had left him alone in the dim light of his workplace, he continued to contemplate the heavy bar resting in his hand. It took several minutes for his mind to finally stop racing, letting the rest of him catch up with it.

So, the rumors people had started spreading about the farmer were true. It scared him a little at first. The stories of inhuman strength made him nervous, but it only made sense. How else would they have been able to bring in so much ore? Clint had always assumed they were just lucky, or buying it from some supplier.

He remembered how just a little while ago, Gunther had brought in a pile of rare gems for him to inspect, claiming that the farmer had just brought in ten times as much in their “physics-defying bag,” but Clint figured he was just excited about having so many new additions to the museum. Now he knew better.

Despite how different they were, the farmer hadn’t done anything harmful in their time here. They had been nothing but kind to the people of Pelican Town, and Clint still enjoyed having them come in every so often. Why should this change anything?

'It’s going to be strange… just try to deal with it. They seem nice enough.'

Clint ran his fingers over the glittering bar once more.


End file.
